Portable media players are becoming increasingly popular. In particular, portable digital media players that are configured to hold large amounts of digitally encoded audio are becoming ubiquitous in modern culture. For example, recent studies have shown that over 22 million adults own Apple ipod® digital audio players alone.
Some portable media players are now being designed for video playback in addition to audio playback. For example, some versions of the Apple ipod® can now play digitally encoded video as well as digitally encoded audio. Many other mobile computing devices also are designed for audio/video playback, and the prevalence of such devices is expected to greatly increase in the coming years. For example, full motion video is expected to become a common feature on mobile phones and mobile computing devices.
The inventors herein have recognized that the relatively small screen size of a portable media player (or similar devices) can limit enjoyment of the media player when it is used for video playback. Furthermore, the inventors herein have recognized that at least some of the issues associated with relatively small screen size can be addressed by projecting video images from a portable media player to a relatively large display surface.
This disclosure includes several different solutions for projecting video images from a portable media player to a relatively large display surface. According to an aspect of this disclosure, a dock for a portable media player can include a projection module for projecting video images to a relatively large display surface. According to another aspect of this disclosure, a dock can be configured to operably link a projection module to a portable media player, thus allowing the portable media player to deliver video data to the projection module via the dock. According to another aspect of this disclosure, a projection module can be configured to wirelessly receive video data from a portable media player. According to another aspect of this disclosure, a portable media player can include an integrated projection module for projecting video images to a relatively large display surface.
In some embodiments, one or more speaker modules can cooperate with a projection module to provide a complete audio/video experience. The projection module and/or speaker module(s) can be configured to additionally or alternatively receive audio/video information from a source other than a portable media player. The projection module and speaker module(s) can also be operated independently of one another, so that only video or only audio is being played at a particular time.
Virtually any type of content can be projected in accordance with the present disclosure. For example, a user interface and/or application software of a portable media player can be projected onto a display surface. In some embodiments, information corresponding to the audio content that is being played can be projected onto a display surface.
In some embodiments, a remote control can be used to control the portable media player, projection module, speaker module, and/or dock. A remote control can optionally be designed with controls that substantially mimic the controls of a corresponding digital media player. In some embodiments, the controls of the portable media player can additionally or alternatively be used to control the portable media player, projection module, speaker module, and/or dock.